Butch-M

Caustic commentary from our friend aside ... thanks Tucker.

You seemed to be well plugged into shotgunning. Where can I find out about a Berreta "S686 - Special" that I bought in the early 1980's? It's 12ga, choked IC/IM and fits me like a glove. I used it at the Oris Shooting School up in Vermont and after being measured by their gunsmiths; they could offer no improvement in fit. Do pretty respectable on grouse with it. I'm curious about the "Special" designation. It's a great gun, but doesn't seem any different than any other 686 to me. Is that a model, or something different about it? I tried Beretta's website to no avail. Thanks

I'd only buy a Mossberg if I had to.

No on the Butch-M & duckhunter 888 being the same person. duckhunter seems to hail from Texas; I'm from the Atlantic flyway. I have not had a chance to take this e-mail reply from Benelli over and see what the dealer has to say. I suspect Benelli sales department may be leaving out some information about how often they ship to dealers; how MANY barrels they have "in stock:" how many are spoken for already; where my dealer's order sits on the list of back orders to be filled by Benelli; and finally ... I have to wonder a bit if Benelli might have a sales philosophy about making their product difficult to procure??? The high cost fits that scenario. I'm not aware of the breakdown of their product sales either. Perhaps SBEII is not a major focus; with other guns getting more production time. I contacted a few on line dealers who you might think sell more Benelli stuff than my guy; thereby having more "pull" with Benelli ... none of them had an SBEII barrel either. They were vague about their next delivery. My guy had told me their deliveries were running about 60 to 90 days from Benelli normally. He's not far out of that frame yet. Frankly, I wasn't expecting the barrel before about July.

I contacted Benelli and here is their reply: Dear Sir, Depending upon which barrel finish you are specifically referring too we can say that we have 2 out of the 3 variations of barrels in stock (Black & Max-4 - In stock, HD Timber - Out of Stock). Additionally, Sir we cannot respectfully discuss any dealer account information with anyone except the dealer's themselves. At this point we have to refer you back to the dealership in question to inquire as to why this barrel has not arrived in the store. We apologize for your frustrations. Sincerely, Customer Service Dept. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 10:17 AM To: [email protected] Subject: BenelliUSA.com Comment When can I expect the 28" shotgun barrel for my SBE2 slug gun, which I ordered with xxxxxxxxxxx on 2/5/05???? Three months doesn't do much for customer satisfaction!!! =================================I mentioned my dealer in the hope that they would ship my barrel out to the dealer more quickly ... not because I have any gripe with the dealer. [ 05-24-2005, 09:43 AM: Message edited by: Butch-M ]

I figured the plastic is probably a different formula; likely softer than a sabot. Possibly melting and/or peeling through the rifling. Just wondering.

Has anyone tried firing shot out of their rifled slug barrel? I'm wondering if the plastic shot cup would behave similar to the sabot cup ... or cause major fouling of the rifling.

I have never heard anyone complain about having too much quality ... and have often seen people lament not having waited to purchase more than they did. A few extra months without; is quickly forgotten in the decades of high performance and pride of ownership. But then again; some Russian General once said " the best is the enemy of good enough."

Thanks: ... I joked to my sales guy that I was in no hurry; duck season being my goal ... seems the joke is reality. Thought I might get to try it for this Turkey season.

I ordered a 28" shotgun barrel for my SBEII slug gun on February 2, 2005. The local dealer who I've used for 30 years; and sells quite a few guns; hasn't received it yet. Am I getting jerked around or is 3 months normal?

Looks pretty sharp to me. Different, and classy.

Around here the Game Officer used to try to insert dummy shells in your gun ... if three or more go into the magazine ... busted!!!

Tucker ... weren't you concerned about the heat damaging the bolt when it was being welded???

$400.00 difference? What's that spread out over the life of the gun? A few bucks a year. Trouble is ... you never know what you might be hunting 5 years from now. Having 3-1/2" capacity available gives you the peace of mind to know that you can hunt anything, anywhere, anytime. Pretty close to a lifetime firearm. Seems worth it to me. "Beware the man who shoots only one gun."

You buy $4,000.00 worth of Rolls Royce shotguns and are worried about cheap ammo??? You must do a lot of shooting out there in LA. LOL For what it's worth my SBEII cycled Lightfield Lite slugs when I was trying them for a friend. They are very low recoil 12ga shells. As far as the recoil spring question ... I think I read a complete dissertation about it buried in one of these posts. Unfortunately I can't find it again for you.

Tap it. I have a scope on my slug barrel which works fine. The mount is on the rear section of the barrel which I guess is technically part of the receiver, even though it is an integral part of the barrel.

First ... I think I read somewhere that a raised rib helps with heat wave dissipation over your sight plain. Sort of makes sense. Hitting with a shotgun is about 95% how a gun "FITS" you. The best money you could possibly spend on any shotgun is getting yourself "measured" and then have the stock cut, bent, shimmed, whatever necessary to fit those measurements. When you're finding one of your guns is hitting better than another, I will guarantee you it is the gun that happens to fit you better. It points where you see naturally when you mount it to your shoulder.

Every deer I took with the Platinum Tips was a one shot kill. The bullet performs as advertised.

Bergen County. Even with a 3-9x Zeiss scope on my the gun, my longest shot was about 80 yards. On two occasions I let major bucks go by because they were at 96 & 115 yards. I only started slug hunting this year and didn't have a chance to perfect shooting technique nor ammunition characteristics over 100 yards. Did 99% of my work at 50 yards. Slug shooting is very similar to rifle shooting but has a few major differences that can REALLY open up group size radically. I have the SBEII at the gunsmith lowering the trigger from lawyer proof 8.5lbs to 5 lbs now. I’ll take the gun this summer and work further with Winchester Platinums and also try the Partition Golds at 100 yards. I’ve taken deer with my T/C Encore out to 147 yards and my .300 WinMag out to 312 yards, so it was just my comfort zone and self imposed limits with a new setup preventing me from reaching out. My feelings on the Lightfields taken from asking a lot of people who use them and people who shoot a LOT and have tried them is that they invariably pass right through the deer not giving up all their energy. I wasn’t crazy about the ballistics either. Personally, I have a hard time dealing with what reminds me of a salt water boat sinker being fired out of my shotgun anyway. I like to have the option of shooting pretty far out. A lot of guys swear by the Federal Barnes bullets. Thanks for your input Joe. I'm trying to come up with the best setup for this gun ... which I really like so far.

Anyone deer hunting with an SBEII? How have you found the slug accuracy? I've shot Lightfield Hybreds. (quite accurate) Lightfield lights, Federal w/Barnes bullets (Okay) Remington Copper Solids (Okay) and Winchester Platinum Tips. Used the Platinum Tips to harvest 15 deer this season, but don't feel completely comfortable with them yet. Need to do a lot more work. I'm wondering how everyone else is fairing.